Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Against All Odds ❯ The Pain of Pride ( Chapter 26 )

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ. If I did I would have made sure that Vegeta got more air time.

A/N:

Interlude for X

~

Bulma scanned the arid desert as she licked her parched lips. "My kingdom for a glass of lemonade." She rasped as she collapsed into the man's arms.

Vegeta caught the delicate woman to his muscular chest, savoring her rounded curves that were cradled against him. Her wide cerulean eyes shot up to meet his obsidian ones and her pink lips parted with surprise. Her small hand rested next to his heart and he shivered as she slid her warm palm up over his wide shoulder. Her pale fingers curled around the back of his neck, drawing him closer.

Bulma felt tremors of anticipation course through her as her body ached for the hard warrior who held her tight. Her heart pounded and precious little oxygen found its way into her lungs. His lips dipped near hers as her fingers delved into his upswept ebony hair. Their eyes locked both burning with desire. "Soon all of your thirsts will be quenched." He promised huskily.

~

Can you just see the cheesy romance novel cover?

Chapter Twenty-Six

The Pain of Pride

Nail slowly approached the blood-soaked man who stood silently next to the fallen warrior. At first the prince didn't notice as he drew nearer, seemingly immersed in his own thoughts, but then his hard eyes pinned him down, flashing with annoyance.

"I thought you would have taken off by now." Vegeta growled at the emerald man.

Nail swallowed, desperately wishing that he had left behind the fearsome demon, but his duty urged him on. "We had a deal," he whispered the words with little conviction.

Vegeta grunted before turning on his heel to gather up the dragon ball he had dropped on the ground during the fight. Without a word he strode towards the ship, the slight ki signatures of the other balls leading him. Nail followed behind at a safe distance.

"What a nice young man he is. So polite, but I think he's afraid of you. Well that's nothing new." Bulma kept pace alongside of Vegeta, her endless chatter echoing down the corridors as they entered the ship.

"Did you know that Namekians only drink water? Of course you did, it was on the data chip I gave you. You have to wonder how they keep such healthy physiques only on a liquid diet." As Bulma walked along she primped her hair, examining herself in the metal walls that were polished into a mirror like shine.

Vegeta glanced at her from the corner of his eye, growling at her inane comments. He knew she wasn't there, but it didn't make her any less annoying. As he looked over he saw his reflection and he was slightly appalled. He was drenched in blood, his uniform stained red and his face was caked in a scarlet mask. His black eyes blazed heatedly from the dark shadows of his face and with some concern he noted that they were blood shot. He needed to find a wash room and the medical bay.

Nail's heart lurched as the prince in front of him growled for no reason and he slowed his pace to put even more distance between them. After a few twists and turns they entered a small room and found the five dragon balls lying carelessly on the floor. Nail entered behind Vegeta, sliding along the wall in an effort to stay as far away from the prince as possible.

Bulma pranced up to the balls with a large grin of delight as she clapped her hands together. "Look how pretty they are!" She bounced happily in a ditzy manner she sometimes adopted when she was especially pleased about something. She always told him that she was channeling her mother in those moments.

Nail stepped forward to gather up the balls nearly brushing up against Bulma as he did so. A ferocious growl sounded from the door and Nail froze in terror. Slowly he turned around to see Vegeta glaring murderously at him. Nail held his hands up in supplication while trying to explain his actions.

"You can't carry all the dragon balls by yourself. I was just helping." Nail said softly while watching the other man carefully.

Vegeta knew that he must look irrational in the other warrior's eyes and it angered him beyond belief. He was feared on the battlefield because of his strength, not because people thought he was insane, yet here he was acting like a mad man. From under hooded lids he watched as Bulma skipped from one ball to the other, completely ignoring the two warriors in the room.

When Nail stepped close to her, Vegeta had reacted on instinct. His first thought was that no male should be that close to his mate, but that was quickly followed up by the logical realization that she was dead and not really there in the first place.

What truly disturbed Vegeta was that he didn't want Nail walking up to her, because she was dead. Vegeta understood that she was his hallucination, which only he could see or hear, but the more he forced that idea onto himself the more his subconscious mind rebelled. How do you prove if something is real or not? If you can see it, does that mean it's real? Obviously not. Same went for being able to hear it as well. Just because he could see and hear Bulma didn't mean she was really there, but that didn't stop the darkest part of him that yearned for her to exist in this dimension. A small piece of him needed her to be there, needed to believe that she wasn't a figment of his demented imagination.

Vegeta convinced himself that the only way you could know if something was real was by touching it. If you could feel something solid under your hand, then it must be there. However, if Nail walked through Bulma as if she was nothing but air, then it would prove to the prince once and for all that he was insane. More devastatingly, it proved that she wasn't really there with him and that very small, desperate part of Vegeta wasn't ready to face that reality yet.

Vegeta squelched the nagging desire that was blooming inside of him and forced himself to think clearly. There was no room for doubt in the coming battle and if he was going to overcome this newest weakness then he needed to figure out why it was happening.

"Take the dragon balls and wait for me outside." Vegeta ordered the nervous man.

Nail nodded and quickly snatched up three of the balls, scurrying to the exit. Curiosity made him pause outside the room and lean up against the wall, quietly listening while out of sight of the prince.

"What are you going to do now? I hope it involves a bath," Bulma held her nose while flashing Vegeta a disgusted look, "You stink."

Vegeta snarled at the false image of his lover, "Shut up, I can't think with your incessant chatter ringing in my head."

Bulma tossed her hair and turned her back on the prince, "Well you don't have to be so rude about it. It's not my fault you haven't figured out the key to becoming stronger."

"Even when you are dead you can't stop talking," Vegeta hissed.

Nail felt his skin grow cold as small shivers of fear crawled along his flesh. The prince was talking to an empty room as if someone was really there. Slowly he backed away from the wall, quickly turning the corner.

Vegeta felt Nail's ki and he stepped to the door to look down the already vacant corridor.

"You know Vegeta, it's not paranoia if they are out to get you." Bulma giggled as she made the joke at his expense.

Vegeta stared out into the abandoned hall, frustration and anger spilling through him. The alien had heard him speaking to himself. He had been so distracted by Bulma he hadn't even noticed that he was still outside the door like he should have. Vegeta rubbed his hand across his creased brow as he tried to think.

He was suffering from some sort of illness that caused him immense pain. For some reason his mind created images of Bulma in order to circumvent that pain. That had to be the explanation as to why she was there. As the pain increased the visions of her escalated until it seemed as though she really was there conversing with him.

He tried to ignore her but his body reacted involuntarily to her presence. He couldn't afford to have some fantasy running rampant on the battlefield while he was trying to fight Frieza. Even in death she was a liability. He had to get rid of her.

If her presence was the balm to his pain ridden psyche, then it stood to reason, that if he cured his pain then she would disappear as well. He squared his shoulders with determination as he stalked out of the room without looking back at her.

As Vegeta stomped through the halls of the ship, he tried to ignore the growing sense of guilt. As he sat in his pod, listening to his mate's last goodbye he had felt such terrible loss. He hadn't felt that emotion, since the destruction of his planet and the death of his race. Now she was here by his side and he was planning on wiping her out of existence once again. An emotion that had always existed within him, but he had refused to acknowledge, roused itself in the back of his mind.

Vegeta strode into the Medical Bay and staggered to a halt when he saw Bulma standing in the middle of the room dressed in her lab coat. She turned to face him as she jotted down some notes on her clip board, while casting him a brilliant smile. The scene was so familiar that Vegeta couldn't stop the ripple of contentment that flowed through him.

"What do you need Vegeta? Is the GR broken again?" She stopped her writing to glance up at him and her smile turned into a frown of concern. "You look horrible, you have to stop training so hard. It wouldn't kill you to take a break every once in a while you know."

How he wished that this scene was real. He wanted desperately to be back at Primus getting ready to yell at her to fix that infernal machine, but instead he was here on Namek preparing to face his worse enemy. An enemy that he was still too weak to defeat. Vegeta ignored her and walked up to the cabinets that held the medical supplies, searching through the various vials.

"What are you looking for Vegeta?" She questioned.

Without forethought Vegeta answered her, "A pain suppressant." He scowled when he realized that he responded to her out of instinct again.

"Oh. Why, are you hurt?" She asked with concern, drawing near him.

With a barely suppressed shudder of need, Vegeta pulled away from her without answering and searched through another drawer, finally finding what he wanted. He snatched up a syringe and took his prize back to a counter at the center of the room. Bulma walked around to the other side so she was facing him and began to fidget nervously. Vegeta ignored her while tearing open the paper that encased the syringe and filled needle with the medicine.

"Why are you doing this Vegeta?" Bulma asked softly.

Startled, Vegeta looked up and his dark eyes locked with her soft blue ones. She looked so sad standing across from him as though he was wounding her in some way, as if he was betraying her. He cruelly hardened his heart against her, telling himself that she wasn't real. In an effort to convince himself he said the words out loud.

"Because you aren't real." He whispered to his subconscious.

A small tear trailed down her ivory cheek as her small hand fluttered up to her throat. "I am as real as you need me to be."

Vegeta's gut wrenched at the sight of her tear and he paused a moment as he absorbed her words. Would it be so bad to have her by his side even if it was only a dream? To see her encouraging face on the battlefield? He shook away his desire and stiffened his resolve. "No, you are just a figment of my imagination."

"You need me."

A thunderous fury rose up inside of Vegeta as everything he was rebelled against that simple statement. He flung his arm wide, slamming it against a cart that held surgical tools. They crashed to the ground, clamoring as they scattered across the cold metal floor.

"I need no one!" He howled with rage. How dare she accuse him of such a weakness. He needed no one, he never had. He had survived alone his entire life and he would continue to do so. He did not need the support of one tiny, frail female. That forsaken emotion raised its deadly head; its black body crouched, stalking the prince as it sensed its freedom drawing nearer.

"I'm the only one who can take away the pain." She whispered back, unaffected by his tantrum. Her huge sapphire eyes shimmered with tears as she silently begged for him to acknowledge the tumultuous emotions that boiled inside of him.

With soulless eyes he glared back at his lover. "There is no pain, only pride." He plunged the syringe into his arm and Bulma thrust out her hand to stop him. He watched as her form wavered, her outstretched hand reaching for him as she blinked into nothingness. The beast leapt forward and loneliness engulfed the solitary prince.

*~*

After Vegeta had cleaned himself off and changed into a new uniform he gathered up the remaining dragon balls and met Nail outside. Silently, they flew east, covering miles of ground in mere moments. Ruthlessly, Vegeta ignored the cold ache that spread relentlessly through his heart with every passing moment.

Eventually in the distance, Vegeta could make out a pillar of land with a white building perched on the summit. As they drew nearer he could feel an ancient power winding its way around him, embracing him in welcome. Vegeta shuddered at its touch, slightly discomforted. He had felt the malevolent energy created by the ice-jinn and he had experienced the aura of battle frenzy ebbing from other warriors, but never before had he felt the strength of peace and wisdom.

They touched down outside of the building and Nail led him to the entrance. Once inside it took a moment for Vegeta's eyes to adjust to the shadows of the room after the blinding light of the Namekian sun. Finally he pinpointed the source of the power that drew him and his narrowed eyes widened.

The ancient's skin was the color of forest moss found in the deepest and oldest groves. Timeless wisdom swirled in his bottomless eyes, pulling Vegeta into their depths. The elderly man sat upon a white stone throne which was bejeweled with the golden orb that was captured in the branches of the stag like horns that decorated the back of the carved chair. Vegeta felt a moment of unease as the unfamiliar power washed over him again, unaccountably reminding him of rich soil, clear waters, warm spring days and the miracle of life.

Vegeta's lips hardened into a straight line as he stiffened his spine. He dropped the dragon balls on the ground and swaggered up to the throne arrogantly.

"I have come for the dragon ball," he demanded.

The old man looked down at Vegeta, his eyes gleaming with intelligence. Without a word he reached up to pluck the dragon ball from its resting place and handed to the astounded prince. Vegeta glared down at the ball in his hands. He had been certain that the old man would put up more of a fight, not just hand it over.

"What will you wish for?"

The softly spoken words jarred Vegeta out of his thoughts. The prince looked back up at the man, the answer pouring instantly from his lips.

"Power."

The green man cocked his head to one side as his keen eyes swept across Vegeta's marble hard face, searching for his secrets. Vegeta shivered and his closed features became even more shuttered.

"Why?"

"So I can defeat my enemy." Vegeta hissed with vengeance. Nothing had changed since he had walked out of the throne room, leaving his murdered mate behind. He still wasn't strong enough to defeat Frieza, but now he had no choice. He had to make his wish quickly so he could avenge his fallen people and reclaim his honor as the Prince of all Saiyans.

"That would be a wasted wish." Guru continued softly, carefully watching the nearly unperceivable emotions flit across the prince's face. At his words, Vegeta's eyes sparked with anger and stands of indigo ki leapt off his body.

"Who are you to say. It's my wish!"

Guru was unaffected by Vegeta's fury, but Nail stepped closer, ready to die in defense of his father. A small form appeared from out of the shadows behind the throne and pressed itself closer to the old man. Vegeta ignored them both as he growled at wiseman.

"You already have the power to destroy him." His words prodded Vegeta who felt a distant flicker deep inside of him. A magnificent power that twisted and churned like a huge golden serpent waiting to be unleashed.

"If I had the strength I would have done it by now, you fool." Vegeta growled at the man's insinuation that he had the ability to kill Frieza. If he had the power she would still be with him. She would be savoring his victory by his side. He would have never allowed her to leave him alone.

"It's locked deep inside of you. You just have to use the key." The sensation of agelessness flittered over Vegeta again as the elder spoke. The prince understood the power of death. He knew about the strength that could be wrought with destruction and chaos. He did not understand the power of creation. Of wisdom and peace. The aura of the man before him, made Vegeta nervous.

"The only key I need is the Dragon Balls." Vegeta stated, his conviction wavering in the face of ancient knowledge. His hallucination had mentioned something about a key.

"You already have the key, you just have to use it."

"What are you talking about old man? You aren't making any sense." Vegeta glared darkly at the sage, annoyance at the man's veiled innuendo eating at him. He just wanted to make his wishes.

Guru sighed deeply, "Isn't there something else you would rather have?"

Sapphire eyes looked up at Vegeta from the dark abyss where they were imprisoned. Her sparkling laughter echoed across the wastelands of his soul prodding the aching desolation that was stalking his heart.

Bulma

Vegeta had heard of the word loneliness before, but he had never acknowledged it. Now he felt it crashing down on him, crushing him with its tremendous weight. Without her he was only one half of the equation. He was without balance, without light. It was her voice that whispered words of mercy in his dark subconscious. The darkness within him spread across his soul like a bloody stain. Without her he was a remorseless beast, not unlike his enemy.

"I don't know what you are talking about." Vegeta looked straight into the elder Namek's eyes. His heartless, obsidian spheres reflected no doubt or sympathy.

For the first time a flicker of concern appeared in Guru's knowing eyes and Vegeta relished his victory over the aged man, but it was short lived.

"Are you sure, my son." Guru's words were intoned with great caring, but they caused a whiplash of black hate to pour through Vegeta.

"I am not your son," he hissed, "I am Prince Vegeta, the royal heir to King Vegeta, the ruler of all of Vejita-sei. I am going to avenge my people and if you try and stop me I will slaughter you all without a shred of regret." Vegeta glared at the Namekian sage, before turning on his heel, stalking over to the dragon balls. He dropped the last one on the ground with the other six and turned back to face Guru.

"Tell me how they work." He demanded harshly.

"You need a password." Nail had drawn closer to Guru at Vegeta's impassioned speech, but the elder remained calm and serene.

"Tell it to me." Vegeta could feel anticipation swirling in his stomach. He was so close to victory. Soon he would have the strength he always craved, the power that he deserved. He was moments away from achieving his ultimate goal, but for a split second he was uncertain if that goal was defeating Frieza or having his mate back in his arms.

"No." At the softly spoken words Vegeta's excitement shriveled up and died. Instead it was replaced with cold, hard resentment. Slowly Vegeta turned his head to stare at the source of his fury. The large Namekian sat comfortably on his throne, seemingly unaware of the beast he was carelessly taunting.

"If you kill me, the dragon balls will cease to work. They are tied to my life force." Guru read Vegeta's thoughts and forestalled his murderous instincts. Without blinking Vegeta phased out of sight and reappeared next to the throne. He caught the small boy in his arms, who only moments ago had been pressed up against Guru. Vegeta wrapped his strong battle-scarred hand around the boy's throat, his deadly eyes pinning Nail to the spot when he moved forward to intercept the prince.

"Tell me or I kill him instead." Vegeta toneless words echoed in the silent room.

Still Guru did not move and his aura of peace became suffocating to Vegeta. Righteous anger boiled inside of him as he glared at the men. All he wanted was to make his wishes and be on his way. Who were they to tell him that his dreams weren't worthy? Who were they to judge him?

"The choice is yours Prince Vegeta. It has always been your choice." Guru's cryptic response crawled down Vegeta's spine. Was the old man talking about the boy or something else?

Vegeta's lips peeled back into a feral snarl and just as he was about to snap the young boy's neck he felt something dark and foreboding overpower him. Vegeta's head whipped to the left and he stared at the far wall seemingly to see straight through it to the source of the energy.

The boy wiggled in Vegeta's arms loosing the grip of the fingers around his throat.

"Something wicked this way comes." The boy whispered ominously.

A/N: Something Wicked This Way Comes is the name of a book by Ray Bradbury and it's a line from Shakespeare's Macbeth. So I am giving him credit where it is due. I just have always loved the line and about jumped with joy at the opportunity to use it.